April snippets

*If someone were to ask me what I did in April, I would tell them I cleaned my house. That's all I did. If it weren't for the notes I took for the purpose of this post, I would have no memory of anything except cleaning. We showed the house the ENTIRE month of April averaging 5 showings a week and I needed to make sure I did everything I could in MY power to make sure the house showed well. I wouldn't be interested in a dirty or cluttered house, so why would anyone else? Sometimes I cleaned several times a day, 'cause, you know, I didn't have anything better to do with my time like take care of five kids ages 14 to 2 in their final months of school and activities with projects and tests and papers and concerts and programs and performances. Or pack up a house. Or organize all of the moving logistics. It was exhausting. Especially because kids are constantly undoing things before you've completely finished the task at hand or very shortly thereafter. It finally got to a point where I had to take JJ to the car and lock him in his car seat for 10-15 minutes (or sent all the kids to the car) while I finished the final touches, working my way to the garage door so I didn't have to chase down a 2-year-old and end up with foot prints in the newly vacuumed carpet or dirt on my currently clean hard floors or finger prints on the appliances or glass. Never mind all the hours we spent waiting on street corners, in parking lots, at stores with no intent to buy anything or at bus stops to intercept kids during the actual showings. Holy Schnikey! If I have any say, I will never sell another house again unless I can do it without showing it. Or cleaning it. I usually like to clean, too. But THIS...this was insanity!

*In planning for the special foods we like to eat and enjoy during General Conference weekend (the first weekend in April and October when our General Authorities and Apostles speak to us from Utah), we were thinking about one of Jared's favorite: The World's Greatest Cornbread. Some time ago, I had made my Aunt Charlene's recipe for almond cake for a special occasion. There just happened to be a few pieces left in the 9x13 pan on the stove when Jared returned that evening. He saw them and grabbed a square.
He polished it off in a flash and said, "Man, Jenn, this was the best cornbread."
I pursed my lips and said, "Well, I'm sorry to hear that...because it's almond cake."
"Ahhh! That explains a lot!"
Now Jared refers to the almond cake, one of our favorite General Conference weekend breakfasts, as the world's greatest cornbread :)

*On April 7th, I put JJ down for a nap. We had transitioned him out of his crib into a twin bed about a month prior and on this particular day, I was not able to locate the door knob cover to use on the inside door knob to keep him in his room from the night before. [Door knob covers had been disappearing at an alarming rate in our house but with our recent trip to TX to get a new house and trying to sell the Oregon house, searching for the lost covers was not on the top of my list or even the second or third lists....until nap time.] So in a rush, I grabbed the one that was on the outside of Jake and Cooper's bedroom door. Of course, JJ's too smart for those covers. He popped it off, somehow, and escaped. But I was determined for him to nap or at least play quietly in his room while I made some moving phone calls/plans. I looked for the cover that I had put on the inside knob and couldn't find it anywhere. I looked under the bed, in the closet, in the garbage can, in the vent (where he's stashed things before) and it was nowhere I could think of. Ugh. So I took a second one off the master bedroom doorknob. And as you probably can guess, JJ emerged from his room just minutes later. (Consistency is key, right? But for whom?) I picked him up and took him back to his room for his quiet time. But I couldn't find THAT door knob cover. Seriously?? And we were out of covers.  Okay, JJ. You win.

Two days later when I decided he needed socks (usually he just wore his little green slip-on crocs), this was what I found in his top drawer. Jackpot!

*On April 11th, the writing prompt at school Karcyn chose was: A List of Things I Hate. Her list was as follows:
-eating oatmeal for breakfast (darn her gag reflex)
-picking up worms on a sunny day (not sure about this one)
-seeing ants on my body (blasted sugar ants)
-getting sweaty when I run (get used to this, sistah! You sweat when you sit in Texas!)

*On Sunday, April 13th we asked Calvin, "So what did you learn about in your Primary class today?"
Without missing a beat OR looking up from his dinner, he mumbled, "Choosing the right," and adding with exasperation, "again."

*On Monday, April 14th, we had a realtor request a showing on the house...during the dinner hour. I refused to spend precious money eating out every time we had a showing during dinner. For 7 people, those bills can add up FAST. Most times we just ate late after we could go back into the house. But on this day, it was such an unexpected sunny day, that I decided to whip together a picnic (hot dogs and cantaloupe and canned beans--so gourmet) for us to eat at a nearby park. It was halfway between our house and Jared's office, so he could just meet us there. But once 6pm rolled around and the sun started dipping below the trees, the wind picked up and the temperature plummeted. The northwest spring got the best of me. It was FREEZING!! To make matters worse, the only picnic table available was in the "valley" of the park which was essentially a wind tunnel. Plates and food were launched everywhere (a nice treat for the local birds and squirrels)--we almost didn't get all our plates back because of the wind gusts. Ears, noses, cheeks and other body extremities were numb. I don't remember how cold it was, but not everyone brought a jacket because we weren't anticipating it to be FREEZING. People were literally fighting over the hot dogs because they were sitting in the warming jar and everyone wanted to thaw out their fingers.You can just see the cold on everyone's faces. It was pretty miserable!

That's Cooper--hiding.

Jake totally like, "dude, what's up with this."

Cooper finally emerging to eat his dog.

The wind whipping right in Karcyn and JJ's faces.

Jared wishing he had his coat.

 

Okay, so maybe the picnic idea was an epic fail. But we saved at least $40!!

*I had contacted the kids' schools in College Station and knew that in order to register them we would need to provide their birth certificates, our rental agreement, their immunization records, etc. But the other required document that stopped me in my tracks was their social security cards. That could present a problem. When we were filing our taxes back in February, I couldn't locate the social security cards then. Fortunately, we still had their numbers on the tax return from the year before so it wasn't an issue at the time. But that was before we found out we were moving and even then it was a nagging memory, like a small dark cloud hanging over me that I wanted to ignore because really...when would the kids need their actual social security cards? I could NOT for the life of me remember where I had put those cards. I had seen all of them fairly recently and I remember putting them in a safe place. But what good is a safe place if you can't remember where it is???

The middle of April, I looked everywhere for a week and a half in wild desperation for those cards. Finally, I decided to call the Social Security office because I have the numbers and wondered if that would eliminate the need for the cards or maybe I could get replacement cards fairly quickly (I did not need one more hoop to jump through or document to send or sign or fax or scan and email at this point in my life) but of course, I couldn't get through. I called the schools again to see if a social security number would suffice. It wouldn't and I was nearly at my wits end. I didn't need more things to worry about, I needed less hassle. I needed to check things off my lists not add to them. Finally, I decided to make it a matter of prayer. I don't know why I waited so long to pray about it. I think I felt like I should at least try on my own first. After I ended my short and simple, but very sincere prayer asking for help in locating the social security cards, I stood up and got a chair and started looking on the top shelves in my closet. Nothing. I stood there and waited and looked around considering other places. I thought about the fire safe again. I had been through it with a fine-tooth comb, three different times already. That's where they usually are but my triple efforts had been in vain. Nevertheless, I looked in the safe again, just in case they slipped inside something. I pulled all the documents out and went through each one very carefully until I got to the bottom of the safe. Again, nothing. Disappointed and discouraged, I just stared at the bottom...and the folded up paper towel I had laid in there as a protective bottom layer. Without even thinking, I yanked the paper towel back and there were the five missing social security cards for the kids! I couldn't believe my eyes and I laughed until I cried and immediately thanked Heavenly Father for answering my prayer. It was a joyful moment! That which was lost, was now found!

*On April 15th, Karcyn presented me and Jared with a letter in an envelope addressed to E.B.--the Easter Bunny. (Which is funny because in the last five years or so, we've decided to just do a family activity together the Friday or Saturday before Easter but nothing on Easter Sunday to try and maintain the reverence of the sacred and holy day. And we certainly don't write the Easter Bunny letters for gifts.) She gave us the letter with the instructions to make sure we could get it to E.B. We said we would. Jared chuckled when he read the randomness of her list (which unfortunately is packed in her file in the depths of our storage unit). A couple of days later, Karcyn followed up with me to make sure I sent off the letter. I told her I did. She commented, "If the Easter Bunny can't bring me the things on my list...it's okay. I won't judge."

*Jake was able to participate in track and field the end of his 8th grade year. He set TWO personal records (PR) in track on April 24th.

1500--5:26 (5:47 the year before)
800--2:45 (2:48 the year before)

*I celebrated my birthday on Tuesday the 29th. JJ had a speech class at 11am that we went to and for the first time ever, Jared was able to take a half day off at work to spend some time with me before the bulk of the kids got home. As I pulled into the parking lot of the speech school, I got a call from a realtor who wanted to know if they could show the house at 2pm. I said sure, but that meant I had to jet back home from downtown Hillsboro and it didn't leave much time to tidy up the house. Jared had biked to work so he came in around 1pm. That was about the time I was scrambling around willy-nilly trying to remember where I'd already cleaned and what I still needed to do. You would have thought by this point I would have had a routine down, but every showing presented a new challenge and set of circumstances depending on the day and time and whatever we had on our agenda. Jared changed quickly and we got out of the house by 1:45. Our friend Celina agreed to take the kids for us when they got off the bus for which we were very grateful. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and went shopping for Calvin whose birthday is May 1st. Cleaning my house and then running errands isn't exactly how I would have chosen to spend my birthday afternoon with Jared, but whatever. If it meant receiving an offer on the house, I was all over it. If we got an offer it would be a birthday miracle! We didn't. But I feel like every birthday I see IS a miracle. Life is a miracle and I'm so grateful for it. I was well remembered and loved and Jared took me out to dinner that evening. The end of April is definitely hit and miss weather wise, but it was a GORGEOUS spring day!! A glorious gift in and of itself!